A Focus On Summertime Writing...Squirrel! - Shirley S. Tye

Ah, summer; the time to slink away to a quiet little corner of the world to write and dream uninterrupted!  I’m easily distracted.  Ideas and plans derail quickly, leaving me baffled as to where to begin sorting the mess upon my return.  And a forgetful mind has difficultly remembering how the story was unfolding leaving me no choice but to re-read everything right from the beginning.  And that could be pages upon pages of writing.  So you see I need several hours or better yet several days to write undisturbed. Yup!  I’m like that single-minded dog; bone, bone, squirrel!  Get the squirrel!  Squirrel makes a clean get-away and doggy is left whimpering and sniffing for the bone.       

Summer generally is a slower time for me; a time of freedom with fewer demands, fewer appointments, and more time to play which equals less stress.  I don’t have to rush from task to task.  There’s time enough to dream and unleash my imagination.  Even the fact that I don’t have to bundle up and pull on boots to go outdoors is freeing.

But I do agree with Ernest Hemingway; when it’s hot it’s better to go fishing than to sweat over a piece of writing.  On hot days, I write in the morning before the temperature turns my brain and body into mush, and I’ll write some more in the cool of the evening.  In the afternoon, while it’s hot I enjoy maneuvering my kayak on the lake or sketching in the shade of a tree or strolling down the paths through the woods.  Even with air conditioning, who wants to spend a beautiful summer day indoors?

Yup!  Summertime is the best time for me to write.  It’s a time of life, of action; flowers bloom, birds sing, bees buzz, and more people are outdoors.  I can focus on writing.  And there’s more…squirrel!  Squirrel!  Gotta go!